Legends
During its long history, the Andriyivskyy Descent has a couple of legends surround it.
One legend states that when Andrew the Apostle visited the uninhabited mountains in the mid-stream of the Dnieper River (today's Andriyvskyy Descent area), he put up a cross atop of the hill where the descent starts and prophesied a foundation of a great Christian city. Since that time, wooden churches sprang up around in the vicinity, completing his prophecy.
According to another legend, there was once a sea where the Dnieper River now flows. When Saint Andrew came to Kiev and erected a cross on the place where the Saint Andrew's Church now stands, the sea went away. The only part that remained of the sea is under the mountain on which Kiev sits today. When the church was built there in the 18th century, a spring opened under the alter. The church has no bells, because, according to the legend, when the first bell strikes, the water can revive again and flood the left bank of Kiev.
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“Sometimes legends make reality, and become more useful than the facts.”
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“a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
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And the twice-told fields of infancy”
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